Computer Keyboards, Mice & Input Devices

Input devices are computer compenents used to interact with the computer. A computer keyboard is a peripheral computer input device partially modeled after the typewriter keyboard. Each press of a key corresponds to a single written symbol. However, to produce some symbols requires pressing and holding several keys simultaneously or in sequence. The majority of all keyboard keys produce letters, numbers or signs (characters) that are appropriate for the operator's language. The mechanisms employed in keyboards essentially involve making an electrical connection when the key is pressed. Keyboards can be connected by a variety of interfaces as well, including PS4, USB, and wireless input devices.

There exist a large number of different arrangements of symbols on keys. These different keyboard layouts arise mainly because different people need easy access to different symbols; typically, this is because they are writing in different languages, but specialized keyboard layouts for mathematics, accounting, and computer programming also exist.

Most of the more common keyboard layouts are QWERTY-based, and were designed in the era of the mechanical typewriters, so their ergonomics had to be slightly compromised in order to tackle some of the technical limitations. The letters were attached to levers that needed to move freely; jamming would result if commonly-used letters were placed too close to one another. With modern electronics, this is no longer an issue. QWERTY layouts and their brethren have been the de facto standard for decades prior to the introduction of the very first computer keyboard. Alternative layouts do exist, the best known of which are the Dvorak and more recently Colemak layouts; however, these are not in widespread use.